Modern medical care often involves the use of electronic medical devices such as medication delivery pumps and/or patient condition monitors. Electronic medical pumps, for example, can be electronically loaded or configured with a customizable “drug library” containing certain drug delivery information or parameters, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,681,285 and 6,269,340. Medication management systems for configuring, controlling, and monitoring medication delivery devices have been disclosed. For example, commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/930,358, which published as US20050144043A1 on Jun. 30, 2005 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/783,573, which published as US20050278194A1 on Dec. 15, 2005, disclose a medication management system in which a user-customizable drug library or medication configuration information is prepared using a drug library editor (DLE) program and module of a medication management unit (MMU). The MMU downloads the customizable drug library to the medication delivery pump and receives status or activity information from the pump. Commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/783,877, which also published as WO2005050526A2 on Jun. 2, 2005, discloses how the drug library or medication configuration information is created, edited, stored and communicated to a medication delivery device in the context of a medication management system to deliver substances, such as fluids and/or fluid medication to patients. According to the above-mentioned commonly owned published patent applications, a typical medication management system, which can be considered an ancillary medication management system to a hospital information system (HIS) in a healthcare institution, includes a MMU in communication with one or more medication delivery devices. The MMU is a computer, typically a server, with an associated memory that stores the customized drug library or medication configuration information for configuring the medication delivery devices and the activity information received from the medication delivery devices.
Although the medication configuration information can be established (added, deleted, edited, etc.) in an ancillary medication management or delivery system, the medication configuration information is usually is established at a centralized location within a healthcare institution, such as within a pharmacy information system (PhIS) within an HIS. In the context of formulary medication configuration information, a Master Drug Formulary is used to configure Drug Libraries, as disclosed and described in commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/783,877, which published as US20070213598 A1 on Sep. 13, 2007. The '598 publication describes the content, format, transfer and many other details of the establishment of the medication configuration information and the transfer of this medication configuration information to ancillary medication management systems. As mentioned, commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/930,358, which published as US20050144043A1 on Jun. 30, 2005 also described the transfer and use of such medication configuration information, among other aspects.
Additions, deletions, edits, and/or modifications, together referred to as a changes, are made from time to time to the medication configuration information within the centralized system, such as the PhIS within an HIS. As mentioned, ancillary medication management systems can communicate with the PhIS within the HIS, and each ancillary medication management system has its own ancillary medication configuration information or drug library, which is typically a subset of the medication configuration information within the medication formulary at the HIS. However, ancillary medication management systems and the administrators of such systems do not always wish to implement one or more of these changes within their ancillary medication management systems, and need a mechanism to determine whether changes within medication configuration information within the centralized system should be implemented locally.
Thus, one objective of the present invention is the provision of at least a method, system and computer program product for synchronizing medication configuration information between a primary medication configuration information system and an ancillary medication management system and/or among ancillary medication management systems.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of a flexible and customizable way to synchronize medication configuration information.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of a way to synchronize only relevant medication configuration information to a particular ancillary medication management system.
All of the patents and patent application referred to within this Background of the Invention section of the present specification are hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of this specification. In addition, the present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed above and, to provide advantages and aspects not provided by medical systems, as well as achieve other objects not explicitly stated above. A full discussion of the features, advantages and objects of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.